Thrilling and teary end for Indian women's cricket team

An inconsistent India crashed out of the Womenrsquos World Cup after suffering a heartbreaking threewicket defeat against South Africa in a mustwin leaguestage game that went down to the wire here on SundaySmriti Mandhana 71 Shafali Verma 53 and skipper Mithali Raj 68 struck halfcenturies setting the platform for India to reach a competitive 2747 at the Hagley OvalDespite Indiarsquos average bowling and fielding the match lasted the full distance with offspinner Deepti Sharma needing to defend seven runs in the final overA wellset Mignon du Preez was caught in the deep off the penultimate ball raising hopes of a memorable win for India The Proteas now needed three runs off the final ballCrucial noball callHowever moments later the umpires ruled that Deepti had overstepped turning Indiarsquos ecstasy into agony in a matter of secondsDu Preez eventually hit the winning runs off the final ball and remained unbeaten on 52 to see her team through and finish second in the league stage behind AustraliaIn possibly her last match for India skipper Mithali Raj was left devastated along with her teammatesIndia were not consistent enough to make the semifinals and ended fifth in the league stage with three wins and four lossesSouth Africa were cruising in their run chase with the inform Laura Wolvaardt 80 off 79 and Lara Goodall 49 off 69 sharing 125 runs for the second wicketIndia rely heavily on veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami for early breakthroughs and her absence due to a side strain made the task easier for the South AfricansWolvaardt shines for ProteasHarmanpreet Kaur who made 48 with the bat got rid of opener Lizelle Lee 6 with a brilliant direct hit before Wolvaardt and Goodall got together and took the game away from the oppositionWolvaardt continued her sensational run of form with her fifth 50plus score in seven innings It took a double strike from Harmanpreet to bring India back in the game as she found the stumps of Wolvaardt and trapped Sune Luus 22 with her probing offspinBrief scoresIndia 2747 in 50 overs S Mandhana 71 M Raj 68 S Verma 53 H Kaur 48 M Klaas 238 S Ismail 242 lost to SA 2757 in 50 overs L Wolvaardt 80 M du Preez 52 L Goodall 49 H Kaur 242 R Gayakwad 261 by 3 wicketsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever